Sixteen comments

4 parts

The 3 people who have downloaded this tune to their tune books should be made aware that it is a 4-part tune, and a 2/4 march[ which isn’t included as a tune category]. You sure the "Boys" only play 2 parts, errik ? - I’d be surprised, as I’ve heard Aly Bain play the full version with Phil Cunningham.

they play the tune 4 times through, AABB. at least that’s how it sounds to me. the final two times though, they do somewhat of a variation on the B part. i’m not sure, it just sounded like a 2-part tune to me.

4 + Parts

Thanks Kenny - I tried reformatting it to 2/4 and it just swings. I think I’ve heard a version played by Dr. Tom Anderson on some obscure LP. It seems the last 12 bars are done as an 8 - 8 - 4 - end. When I slowed the playing down to about 90 - 92 bpm, everything just fell into place - lovely, hypnotic and as a march, ground eating. Terrific tune Errik.

Captain Carswell - original version

I found a cassette of the "Boys Of The Lough"’s "Sweet Rural Shade" in a small music shop yesterday, so I bought it, because this has been bugging me for a while.
I think "errik" has faithfully transcribed what the BotL play, the trouble is, it’s very far removed from the original, which I am posting below.

"Boys Of The Lough" give no credit on the sleeve notes to Willie Lawrie for his composition.
It’s up to individuals which version they prefer, but I would always advise learning a pipe-tune from a piper. Willie Lawrie’s composition has been recorded by "The Tannahill Weavers" [whom I learned it from ], and also Gordon Duncan.

Arghhhh….not my fault

Kenny - You can’t use ‘

This is an old curiosity. I’ve had the same thing trying to notate a ‘snap’ in the usual yellow field, it is taken as HTML code and everything that follows the ‘less-than’ sign disappears. You can enter it in the title field, or as I’ve done, use an ‘*’ asterisk as a marker, or some such thing. Good luck…

Recording

You can hear this tune on Spring The Summer Long by Aly Bain & Phil Cunningham. They pair it with another Lawrie tune Mrs McDonald of Dunach which is a splendid tune which I haven’t found yet. (I saw phil & aly on Friday night and they played this set)